Keyboard Shortcuts for Zooming

Oliver knows he can use the scroll wheel on the mouse to zoom in and out in his documents. He wonders, though, if there is a keyboard shortcut that allows him to zoom in and out so that he doesn't need to use the mouse.

There are a couple of ways you can approach this task. The first is to utilize the Zoom dialog box, which gives you precise control over the way you zoom. You can display it using the keyboard by pressing Alt+W (which displays the View tab of the ribbon) and then pressing Q. The Zoom dialog box pops into view. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Zoom dialog box.

You can then use the Tab key and the arrow keys to select different settings. When you press Enter the settings are saved and the dialog box closed.

Another approach is to rely on the accessibility features of Windows. You can kick the Magnifier tool into gear by holding down the Windows key (the one that has the Windows logo on it) and pressing the + key on the numeric keypad. The screen is magnfied. Press the Windows key again and then the – (minus) key and the screen goes back to normal.

Personally, I find the Magnifier tool a bit clunky for this purpose—it magnifies (as its name says); it doesn't zoom. I also find that using the Zoom dialog box is a bit more involved than what I normally want to do. For that reason, I rely on a couple of custom macros to do my zooming. I've described those macros in an earlier WordTips:

As described in that tip, all you need to do is to assign them keyboard shortcuts and you can easily zoom in and out with a single keypress.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training.
(Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.)
This tip (13351) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, and 2013.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Adding Borders to Cells

Excel makes it easy to add all sorts of lines around a cell or range of cells. How easy? This tip demonstrates how to add ...

Learning Made Easy! Quickly teach yourself how to format, publish, and share your content using Word 2013. With Step by Step, you set the pace, building and practicing the skills you need, just when you need them! Check out Microsoft Word 2013 Step by Step today!

More WordTips (ribbon)

Changing Characters on Keyboard Keys

Want to assign some fancy characters to keyboard keys for characters you seldom use? There are a couple of ways you can ...

Comments

If you would like to add an image to
your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment),
include the characters [{fig}] in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload
your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will
be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to
review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

Source

(gif, jpeg or png only, 5MB maximum file size)

Source

(gif, jpeg or png only, 5MB maximum file size)

Source

(gif, jpeg or png only, 5MB maximum file size)

Notify me about new comments ONLY FOR THIS TIP

Notify me about new comments ANYWHERE ON THIS SITE

Hide my email address

What is 9 - 8?

2018-01-31 11:20:31

Connie Goss

I love this tip. I use a lot of Adobe products, and have an ingrained habit of using Ctrl + and Ctrl- to zoom in and out. Now I can use this method in Word too. It makes it so much easier to switch back and forth between software packages throughout the work day. Thanks!

2018-01-30 13:54:23

Lee Batchelor

Jennifer, the Ctrl+mouse button roll no longer works in my Word 2007 version. I just switched over to a new computer. It still works on the internet. Any ideas?

2017-11-22 18:56:41

Bill Paxmon

Useless solution. You are not to blame. Microsoft is

2015-01-13 10:02:33

Mark A. Bouchier

My Office just moved over to Word 2013 from Word Perfect 2014 and keyboards are usefully

2015-01-12 09:29:10

Jennifer Thomas

If your mouse has a wheel between the left and right buttons, you can just hold down the ctrl key as you roll that wheel -- that controls the zoom in almost all applications. It's only a semi-keyboard-shortcut, but is by far the most popular way to zoom for my audience.